IBTA e-News September 2018 released

[28 September 2018] The IBTA's monthly e-News has now been released and has been emailed to all subscribers. To sign up to receive your copy, click here.

You can read the IBTA e-News September 2018 edition in full online here.

Some of the highlights from this month's round-up:

The IBTA-initiated International Brain Tumour Awareness Week is fast approaching and will be running from 20-27th October 2018. It is a fantastic opportunity for anyone in the international brain tumour community to organise and/or take part in awareness-raising activities to highlight the various issues surrounding brain tumour treatment, care and support. Contact the IBTA at kathy@theibta.org if you have any questions about setting up an awareness-raising activity.

A report published in the journal Clinical Trials and a systematic review in The Lancet Oncology have established the pressing need for improved consistency and standardisation in measuring patient-recorded outcomes (such as quality of life assessments) in cancer clinical trials. The IBTA’s Chair, Kathy Oliver, is one of the co-authors of these two papers

Researchers have successfully engineered T-cells (a type of immune cell) that will pass through the blood-brain barrier and also target glioblastoma tumour cells, leading to tumour destruction, according to the findings of a paper published in Nature.

The Children’s Brain Tumor Tissue Consortium (CBTTC) has announced the launch of the free-to-access Pediatric Brain Tumor Atlas, a dataset of more than 2,500 childhood brain tumour samples.

In patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma, the experimental drug iniparib with concurrent radiotherapy and temozolomide has shown anticancer activity and an encouraging safety profile, according to phase 2 clinical trial findings.

A study published in the International Journal of Cancer has found significant differences in the genetic risk factor associated with glioblastoma between young and old patients. Such age-specific differences may provide important clues to the origin of these tumours.

September has seen the launch of the ‘Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce’ campaign to double the five-year survival of brain tumours, and lung, liver, stomach, pancreatic and oesophageal cancers in England.

Our monthly e-News highlights items of interest to our international brain tumour community and is emailed to nearly 6,000 recipients. It gives a round-up of the latest research and treatment developments, news about brain tumour patient organisations around the world, and key forthcoming neuro-oncology scientific and patient conferences. You can sign up to receive the e-News every month by registering here.